SETTING UP A WEBSITE FOR YOUR NGO

Firstly, I would recommend to take advantage of free sites that offer a profile page. You can then get practice in thinking about how you want to present yourself online as well as the process of adding content (and keeping it updated) and using it for networking.

Design & coding

Whoever then designs and codes the website should at minimum be familiar with the two essential building blocks of website creation: html and CSS.

If you just want a basic website and you have plenty of time and good basic computing skills, then you could acquire the knowledge and skills yourself.

A good starting place: itrainonline.org explains the basics of web design and management, and has more advanced resources on web programming.

Or, you could use an online CMS (Content Management System).

There are many which are free; some of the most popular and easy-to-use ones are known as 'blogs' and are ideal if you are thinking of starting small and adding new content -- news stories, photos -- on a regular basis. With this method, you choose from templates that are already designed and upload content yourself. No special skills are needed, the process is similar to using a word processor. But you need to have a good internet connection for this since it is all done 'online'.

If you have a budget, you could use the services of a web developer: a company or individual designer that specializes in creating websites.

A local resource (at local rates) is best but may be hard to find. One way is to contact other NGOs in your country who have a website that you like -- one that is well-designed, works properly and loads quickly -- and ask them how they did it. Maybe they can recommend someone or give other useful information. Often there is a link to the designer of the website at the bottom of the site's home page.

In fact, the designer could be anywhere in the world: for example there are companies in India who can make a professional design of 5 pages for about €150 -- which is very cheap (there are companies elsewhere who might charge up to €1,500). However, be aware that good communication is a vital part of the process of achieving a satisfactory result.

If you have big plans for a website with a lot of content and want interactive things like a forum etc., then I would recommend an Open Source CMS. Such a site requires a special setup which is quite technical and to use it properly you will need support from the developer or self-train using online resources. But you then have the most modern kind of site which you are also able to maintain yourself, without special programming skills needed.

Joomla is my recommendation. This is the Open Source website software that is used by this website (developed by the author: more examples)

Address/hosting

Your own domain name is ideal, however any unique address is sufficient.

If you use an online CMS, you don't need to have a domain as your content is hosted for you

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